When Life Becomes a Music Video: With British India's Nic Wilson

What do you do when your band has released four records, tours incessantly and just performed a widely praised cover for Triple J's Like a Version? If you're British India guitarist Nic Wilson you pick up a video camera and start shooting for ABC Open.

British India have been stalwarts of the Australian Indie music scene for almost a decade now, dropping four albums, a raft of singles, and most recently, playing 'Like a Version' for Triple J. However, despite a touring schedule that borders on sadistic, guitarist Nic Wilson has found the time to pick up a camera and join the ranks of ABC Open. In this interview the budding film maker reflects on caffeine fuelled brain storming, the sweaty palms of playing Like a Version and the importance of likening their audience to a fish.

How did you get involved in ABC Open?

It started a few years back when a buddy of mine Greg Power was driving from Melbourne to Sydney and saw the sign on the side of the road saying 'Save Skeleton Hill from the Quarry'. He was so intrigued by it he came to my house as soon as he got to Sydney to talk about the situation. It was his idea to do a documentary for ABC Open and I found his enthusiasm catchy.

It's basically a documentary about a small town named Chiltern, that is home to the very central and iconic Skeleton Hill. A mining company proposed placing a quarry on the hill and the film is about the divisions that created within the town and the various mentalities of the residents.

How did you find the transition from music to film?

I've always loved movies and had dreams of what I’d do beyond the band and thought I'd love to get into editing. My first foray into film making was when we needed a film clip and didn't want to spend much money on it, so it was kinda thrown on my shoulders. So I made the film clip (for the single March into the Ocean) for the band and from there I've been moonlighting doing film work in one way or another.

It was great! A little nerve racking though. We don't normally rehearse for things but this was one time where we put the axe to the grind and really worked on something. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and it seems to be getting a pretty good reaction.

It's definitely an amazing cover, what made you choose that song in particular?

We got the heads up months back and it has been a huge culling process. Asking what song do you do out of every song ever? There was a bit of a serendipitous moment when we were in the Terrago together, playing a random play list and it came on and everybody clicked at the same time. Yeah, simple as that.

Your constant touring has seen you perform in numerous regional areas, how does this compare to performing in major cities?

It's something that's been really ingrained in us for a long time. Doing regional shows is more a part of our touring schedule than cities. Cities you can play maybe twice a year and there's not many of them, so you'd never be able to live touring off cities alone. Our bread and butter is going out to all the pockets of Australia. I mean, there are a thousand Port Pirie's out there.

There's a world of difference between doing a bigger Corner show, opposed to rocking a small town that may not have heard of you as much. It makes you work for it more which is good. Keeps you sharp.

How do you guys entertain yourselves when you're on the road?

It's hard to think of a group that would have more inside jokes than a band. It's an inordinate amount of time spent travelling, so to keep each other from going insane or hating each others guts you've got to keep the cheer in the air. Whether that be joking around or listening to music and bonding over that.

On the rare moments that British India aren't on tour, what do you guys do in your down time?

We pretty much go away on the weekends to play, from Friday to Sunday. The rest of the time we're holed up in our home studio writing and recording, which is something that we never really get away from as a band. I moonlight as a film maker and the other guys have their interests but it's a pretty constant dedication.

I watched the video clip for your new single Blinded, what's the story behind the clip?

It was a co creation between me and a buddy, Toby Angwin and it spawned out of many caffeine fuelled meetings over coffee, searching our brains over how to make as good a clip on as small a budget as possible. I've always had the wish to make a B-grade horror film and this was the closest we could get in a three minute space of time. I can't remember how the 80's thing came about, originally we were going to use a tribute band, but it was always going to use the idea of us coming out of someone. Just an excuse to use some gore.

How do you as British India maintain your audience?

It's definitely a case of don't let the fish off the hook. We had to have a three year gap in between releasing this album and the last one, not for any one reason but for a thousand reasons. In that three years shit got really, really tough. You can't keep going on the road and making money if your not giving people anything new. It's a lesson that now can't be unlearned, don't let the fish off the hook. The attention span of today is short. You've got to dangle it in front of peoples faces.

How about as a film maker?

That's a difficult one because I'm not sure how much of an audience my films have got. It's hard to evaluate this early.

Out of your constant touring, playing festivals, opening for big bands like Fallout Boy and playing Triple J Like a Version, which has been the most nerve racking for you?

I had some serious sweaty palms going on before Like a Version and I couldn't exactly tell you why. Supporting a big band or playing a festival will always be a bit daunting, but at the same time its nothing that we haven't done before. With Like a Version you know how big of a deal it is and it puts you out of your comfort zone. I know our own set and our own songs like the back of my hand but this song is alien, it's not ours.

What's next for British India?

We're doing our Blinded tour until the start of December and from there we're taking some time off. Then we're going to do a new single for March next year, which will come off an album from the middle of next year.

What's next for your film making career?

The Blinded film clip took up a lot of my time, so now that's all out the way I can start looking at new stuff. I have a few ideas for ABC Open's Crazy Passions that I have been toying with. Looking forward to working on producing them.